Meal Prep Sunday! Plan for 3.3- 1 hour
Meals: Dal Nirvana with brown rice and acorn squash | Lentil pasta with balsamic roasted zucchini and roasted cauliflower | Macro-bowls
Ingredients:
1 can low sodium lentils
1 15oz can low sodium crushed tomato
1'' ginger, minced
1 box Modrn Table lentil pasta (can use your favorite brand, I just happen to love this one)
1-2 small acorn squash
1 cup dry brown rice
8oz pasta sauce of choice (I use the portobello mushroom sauce from Whole Foods)
2 heads of cauliflower
4 small zucchinis
1 large sweet potato or 2 small
1 cup dry quinoa
1 15oz can low sodium red kidney beans
1 head red leaf lettuce, chopped (or can use other green of choice or even roast some greens like kale!)
1 cup sauerkraut
6 TB hummus
2.5 TB olive oil + enough to "drizzle" over veggies
spices to taste: nutritional yeast, bay leaves, garlic powder, pepper, mustard powder
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line 3 baking sheets with foil. Chop and spread cauliflower out onto one of the baking sheets. Drizzle olive oil and add preferred spices- I added mustard powder, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, crushed bay leaves and pepper. Toss to coat evenly and set aside. Chop and spread sweet potatoes onto the next baking sheet, drizzle olive oil and stir to mix. I cut my acorn squash in half and also added it open side down; set aside. Chop and spread zucchini out on third baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste. Toss well. Place all three baking sheets in the oven and set a timer for 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, place brown rice and water into a saucepan, cooking according to package directions (you can do the rice plain, or this is how I cooked my rice: I heated 1 TB olive oil in the saucepan and added the dry rice to the pan. Stir until lightly browned- you can also add chopped onions (I usually do, but didn't have any this time!) before this step. Add ~ 1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes to the pan and stir. Then add 2 cups water, bring to a boil and cover to cook). Do the same with quinoa (although I cook my quinoa plain).
Next, heat 1 TB olive oil in another saucepan (yes, I had almost all 4 burners going during this meal prep- points for efficiency!). Add crushed or minced ginger and let brown slightly. Then drain and add lentils to the pan, stir. Add ~ 6-8oz of crushed tomatoes to the pan and stir (you want it to be somewhat watery because that water will cook out but not overwhelming the lentils with tomatoes). Stir well, reduce heat to low-medium and cover to cook.
Once the veggies are roasting and the rice, quinoa and dal nirvana are cooking you can get started on the pasta and the kidney beans! Bring another saucepan of water to a boil, when ready add in pasta and cook for 5-7 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 1/2 TB olive oil in a skillet. Drain and add red kidney beans. Add remaining 2oz or so of crushed tomatoes to the kidney beans and stir/cook until heated through.
Check on the pasta and if finished, drain and stir in pasta sauce. Remove from heat.
When veggies are done, they will be lightly browned and crispy (you can keep them in for a little longer if you like them crispier/browner)- but don't burn them! Remove veggies from the oven and set aside. If you have more time you can use this time to chop lettuce or whatever green you're using for your macro bowls and/or arrange meal prep containers.
After squash has cooled, you can scrape out with a fork or spoon or remove skin and cut into cubes.
When grains and beans are done cooking, remove from heat. Plate pasta, cauliflower and zucchini into several meal prep containers (my prep made 3 servings of this meal so I put this into 3 containers); Add quinoa, kidney beans, sweet potatoes and some cauliflower into other meal prep containers**; Add lentils, rice and squash into more containers.
There you have it!
You can also split this up- one day make 2 of the meals and the next day make the 3rd meal, if it seems like too much to make all of this at once.
**= I only store the hot ingredients of the macro bowl together because it gets messy if I try to put it all in the microwave. So I store the hot ingredients and when I'm ready to eat it, I'll heat the hot ingredients, then add my lettuce, 1/3 cup sauerkraut and 2 TB hummus to each MacroBowl.